The Dublin architect Philip Sheedy, whose case led to the resignations of two senior judges, is expected to be released from prison next January or February. This follows his successful appeal against the harshness of the original four-year sentence imposed. Mr. Sheedy pleaded guilty in October 1997 to dangerous driving that caused the death of Tallaght mother of two, Anne Ryan. Today, the Court of Criminal Appeal said that the trial Judge had intended that Philip Sheedy would spend two years in custody and that they varied the sentence accordingly.
Philip Sheedy drank four pints of beer in 1996 and then drove his new sports car at speed into the Glenview roundabout in Tallaght. Mother of two, Anne Ryan, a passenger in an oncoming car died from her injuries after the collision. In 1997, Mr. Sheedy pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years in prison by Judge Joseph Matthews in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. Judge Matthews said that he would review the sentence on October 20th of this year. That review date was subsequently lifted.
It was the events a year later, when Judge Cyril Kelly freed Mr. Sheedy, suspending the balance of his sentence, that propelled that Sheedy case into the headlines. The Sheedy Affair, as it became known, ultimately led earlier to the resignations of then High Court Judge Cyril Kelly and Supreme Court Judge Hugh O'Flaherty. Mr. Sheedy himself returned to prison.
The Court of Criminal Appeal had to consider the original four-year sentence and decide if the trial Judge had erred. Judge Matthews had intended that Sheedy would serve two years in prison, which, with remission and the circumstances of this case, is equivalent to three years. He was not wrong, they found in that decision. However, the Court of Appeal found that he was wrong in the structure he established for this case in putting it down for review in two years.
Reviews are normally placed on sentences to offer motivation to people with addiction of behavioural problems who embark on a course of treatment. However, the Court of Appeal said this was not an appropriate case to sentence on the review date formula. Today the court varied the sentence to one of three years, which should give Philip Sheedy his freedom early in the new millennium. John Ryan, the dead woman's husband, was in court for today's decision, but refused to comment. In his victim impact evidence he said that Philip Sheedy knows exactly what he did, adding "let him deal with it if he can".
